Vehicle & Technical > Series Land Rovers

Lubricating leaf springs

<< < (2/3) > >>

Bowie:
If you oil thesprings, you lose a lot of the natural damping effect of the leaves rubbing together -this is designed in, and the damper rates were designed alongside this effect.

If you oil the springs, you remove this damping effect, making your dampers work harder, and there wear out faster.

With oil on the springs, you will most likely attract more dirt and grit which will get lodged between the leaves, which will slowly abrade the springs away -they may not rust, but now friction is your enemy.

Oiling them will make a softer ride, but on the set I recently put on my SIII lightweight I have left them dry, for exactly these reasons.

It's up to you, long life, or *slightly* firmer suspension.

HTH,

Bowie.

Terranosaurus:

--- Quote from: "Bowie" ---If you oil thesprings, you lose a lot of the natural damping effect of the leaves rubbing together -this is designed in, and the damper rates were designed alongside this effect.

If you oil the springs, you remove this damping effect, making your dampers work harder, and there wear out faster.

With oil on the springs, you will most likely attract more dirt and grit which will get lodged between the leaves, which will slowly abrade the springs away -they may not rust, but now friction is your enemy.

Oiling them will make a softer ride, but on the set I recently put on my SIII lightweight I have left them dry, for exactly these reasons.

It's up to you, long life, or *slightly* firmer suspension.

HTH,

Bowie.
--- End quote ---


Never had a landy but have had plenty of leaf sprung vehicles over the years and worked on even more. Manufacturers usually spec that leaves should be lubed so someone should check a proper landrover manual to see wether they should be done or not. However you should only oil leaf springs that do not have the small plastic pads on the tips of the leaves, this type use the plastic as a slider so don't need oiling, not having owned a landy I don't know what type they have.

hobbit:
The old method we used to use was 50/50 petrol diesel mix and paint it into the springs

khaki lover:
As Rowan said
painted em in old engine oil... helped no end with flexion.

I read somewhere about putting ???paper??? between the springs????   not sure about this might be making it up. Think it was on S2C forum once.

Thrasher:
Graphite - in any form you can find that will apply. ISTR you can get it in a sprayable form?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page